[Peasant, defend with weapons the government that has given you the land... From the decree of October 7, 1936]. Signed: Renau. Ministerio de Agricultura. Gráficas Valencia, Intervenido U.G.T. C.N.T. Lithograph, 4 colors; 153 x 103 cm.

The artist Renau incorporated into his work part of the text of
a law by which the land belonging to all those associated with the
military rebellion was turned over to local peasants and day-laborers.
The gun held by the muscular peasant is inscribed with the word
decreto (decree). Curled around it, and run through by the
bayonet, is a wounded snake, identified as the propietario faccioso
(factious landlord). The use of this animal surely stems from the
traditional use of snakes as symbols of evil, most notably in the
case of the expulsion of Adam and Eve. The decree confiscating the
land is presented in this poster as a weapon with which to defeat
one group which had supported the military uprising that led to
the Civil War: the land-owners. This decree was one of the most
important efforts in the area of land reform during the war. It
resulted in the transfer of nearly one-third of Spain's arable soil
to about 300,000 peasants. Vicente Uribe Galdeano, the Minister
of Agriculture mentioned in the text, occupied the Ministry in the
cabinets headed by Francisco Largo Caballero and Juan Negrín,
from September 4, 1936 to nearly the end of the war. He was one
of the most important Marxist theorists in Spain and a leader of
the Spanish Communist Party (PCE). As Minister of Agriculture, Uribe
opposed the collectivization advocated by the anarchist and socialist
trade-unions, and upheld a policy of more moderate agrarian reform
which favored peasant proprietors and tenant farmers.

The issue of agrarian reform was one of the most contentious problems
faced by the Spanish Second Republic from its birth in 1931. A symbol
of its importance was the renaming of a street in Madrid during
the Republican period as "Agrarian Reform Street." It
has also been seen as one of the main reasons for the outbreak of
the war which began in July 1936. According to one historian, the
war "was initiated [by the right-wing military rebellion] for
the benefit of the large property owners, and they were the winners."
The basic problem was the uneven distribution of land: traditionally
in Spain there existed large (more than 100 hectares), unproductive
estates and numerous landless laborers, especially in the southern
and southwestern regions of the country. This resulted in frequent
conflicts and violence, including crop burning and robbery. The
agricultural problem remained in the forefront during the years
of the conflict, and was used by the government and other organizations
in their efforts to secure a popular following, as this and similar
posters show.

This poster is signed by Josep Renau, one of the most important
artists represented in the Southworth Collection. A member of the
Spanish Communist Party, he was active during the war both in art
and in politics. On September 7, 1936, when he was only twenty-nine
years old, Renau was named Director General of Fine Arts in the
central government; in that post, he was in charge of safeguarding
the artistic treasures of Spain. He was also one of the figures
responsible for organizing the Spanish Pavilion in the International
Exhibition held in Paris in 1937 (for which Picasso painted Guernica).
In a letter written in 1974, Renau dated this poster to 1936. It
was therefore designed and printed between the date of the decree,
October 7, 1936, and the end of that year. Since it was printed
in Valencia, it was probably issued after the government left Madrid
for Valencia on November 6. In the letter mentioned above, Renau
says about this poster:

It is one of my worst posters. I made it in a hurry, in less
than twelve hours, and the texts were added in the printing house.
As can be seen, both the lay-out and the types of letters used
are terribly bad. What could we do! It was the war. However, it
is a true historical document: the official poster of the only
and authentic agrarian reform that our unfortunate history has
known. Aside from the extraordinary format, a very large edition
was printed (I do not remember the exact numbers). It was posted
even in the smallest towns throughout the territory controlled
by the government of the Republic. Considering the stage of the
mass-media at the time, this poster was the most useful means
of informing and mobilizing the poorest peasantry in defense of
the Republic. It was also the most efficacious way of increasing
agricultural production in order to insure the provision of food
to the front of the antifascist armed struggle.

Viewers today should not feel bound by the opinion of the artist
about the quality of this poster; it remains an image of striking
power. While the layout may be considered awkward, it may also be
given a positive reading: the competing images of the larger-than-life
laborer, the wounded snake swirling around the gun, and the hand
with the sickle imbue the image with an unresolved tension which
heightens the impact of each individual element. The strident colors,
especially in the lower section, add a suggestion of fire-like heat
that contributes to the compelling call made in the poster.